Court issues warrants to forfeit $158K seized in Charlemagnes’ alleged money laundering conspiracy

ST. CROIX — The District Court of the Virgin Islands on St. Croix issued three warrants today to forfeit money seized from a bank in connection to the alleged theft of disaster relief program funds by Davidson and Sasha Charlemagne, who pleaded not guilty to federal money laundering charges on June 20.

A verified complaint of forfeiture was filed in District Court November 4 alleging the money was subject to seizure and forfeiture to the U.S. government, according to a court document. FBI Special Agent Jamaal Westby offered a declaration on November 4 in support of the complaint to forfeit funds seized on June 12 from the Charlemagnes’ Banco Popular checking account in the amount of $71,470.21 that was in the name of their company, D&S Trucking.

The FBI believed there was probable cause to forfeit the funds seized from the Charlemagnes’ bank account as property involved in money laundering. The case includes two other warrants the court issued today to forfeit money from two additional accounts the Charlemagnes had at Banco Popular in the amount of $62,989.05 and $24,287.38 for a total of $158,746.64.